Prior to being elected president, Joe Biden considered the possibility that he would only stay in power for one presidential term. Suddenly he ruled that option out. Now an aging Biden, after hemming and hawing, finally had the wisdom (coupled with the threat of plutocratic donors to cut funding for the Democrats) to step down from running for a second presidential term. Biden then agreed that his vice president, Kamala Harris, should run for president.

Now it looks like Kamala Harris and Tim Walz could possibly beat the narcissistic loudmouth Trump and his vice presidential hopeful hound dog, J.D. Vance. Harris held her own against Trump, who had rambled more BS than ever in their September 10, 2024, so-called “debate” that hardly addressed the major issues. Trump was as buffoonish as ever, repeating hearsay. Harris got some of “facts’ wrong. Hers was the better performance, but what a farce!

With the Democratic machine and billionaire donors behind her, Kamala Harris appeared to leap from a mediocre Vice President to the status of Madonna (the rock star). A lot of Hollywood glitter―George Clooney, Robert de Niro, Oprah Winfrey, Taylor Swift―are behind Harris. Behind Trump are Hulk Hogan, Jon Voight, and Elon Musk, among others. Not sure which of these “media stars” have the most impact on popular opinion. But it is sad if people can’t think for themselves, stars or no stars.

One would think the American system of “democratic” governance could produce two candidates who could better understand, better articulate, and better formulate policies that better address the domestic and international crises that are confronting the US and the world!

Such is the absurdity of a so-called “democratic” system of governance that is concerned more with media appearances and popularity contests than with the real need for effective governance that fully addresses the needs of the American population without catering to plutocrats (whether Democratic or Republican) and powerful lobby groups of big business and the US military industrial complex.

The American system of governance is no longer functional and needs radical reforms. The wannabe autocrat Trump wants reforms that strengthen the power of the executive. It is only once the Democrats lost a majority of so-called “liberal” justices on the Supreme Court that they realized the Supreme Court needs a long overdue overhaul by engaging in shorter terms for the Supreme Court.

The Democrats were shot in the foot when the liberal Ruth Bader Ginsburg refused to step down from the Supreme Court and retire during Obama’s presidency, and let Obama choose another liberal. She was apparently gambling that Hillary Clinton would win the election, and not Trump.

Suddenly the Democrats woke up: Maybe Supreme Court Justices should not be appointed for life! Maybe they should have limited terms!

After Biden finally decided to step down after one term, maybe the Democrats will wake up again: that all presidents should be in office for only one term. Jimmy Carter argued for a one term 6 year presidency “on the grounds that no matter what he did, people would question whether it was a selfish “campaign ploy” or “genuinely done in the best interest of our country.”

It is said that Trump plotted his re-election from Day One in November 2016 when he was very surprised to learn that he had been elected president. What mattered most to him was that he could orient his first term in such a way as to win a second presidential term.

Even if that is not entirely true, he certainly regretted that fact that he was not re-elected... His January 2021 March on the Capitol revealed the plotting of an embittered, power-hungry individual who is willing to do almost anything to return to power...

Trump’s goals are to strengthen the power of the executive branch over that of Congress and the judiciary toward the establishment of “imperial presidency” that was likewise sought by Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. It would be “Trump 4 (EVA),” as his slogan had put it...

As president, in March 2018, Trump boasted, dubiously in jest, that he wished he possessed the authoritarian presidential powers like those of Chinese leader, Xi Jinping; "He's now president for life, president for life. And he's great... And look, he was able to do that. I think it's great. Maybe we'll have to give that a shot someday,"

In late July 27, 2024, in running for president, Donald Trump told those Christians who were listening to him (as if he really followed the path of Jee-Zus!!!) that if they vote for him in November, “in four years, you don't have to vote again. We'll have it fixed so good, you're not going to have to vote.” That is just one ominous statement that warns of a Trump 4EVA dictatorship.

Trump has also claimed that if he won the presidency, he would not be a dictator, except for "day one." He claimed he was joking. Yet he did not appear to be joking when he said, "You know, FDR, 16 years—almost 16 years—he was four terms. I don't know, are we going to be considered three-term? Or two-term?"

In short, Trump wants more power for the executive branch, for him personally, and less power for Congress and the American people. If he obtains power, it appears he would try to make it possible for presidents to run for office for more than 2 terms... Or perhaps he would seek even more power...

The Supreme Court has now ruled that while a president does not have full immunity, he/she does possess immunity “for actions that are closely related to his core duties as president.” And any president can use 137 statutory powers when he declares a national emergency, for whatever reason. This really opens a fuzzy line toward a potential American dictatorship, as it is not at all clear how one can define acts that are “official” and those that are “unofficial.”

As I argued in the postscript of my book World War Trump, “It Can Happen Here," based on the title of Sinclair Lewis’s novel, It Can’t Happen Here (1936), that depicted a Mussolini-type takeover of the United States, Trump could attempt to stage a coup as he did in January 2021. It can still happen here!

The neoconservative Robert Kagan wrote one of the most prescient descriptions of what a Trump dictatorship could look like. Kagan’s observations are quite to the mark as to what a Trump dictatorship will bring.

The bitter irony, however, is that it was the neo-conservatives and their alliance with neo-liberal policies that opened the door for Trump to come to power in 2016 and to run again for the US presidency in 2024.

It was the US-led military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq and elsewhere that the neo-cons and neo-liberals had so strongly supported that helped set the grounds for the Trumpist “America First” backlash―in large part due to the excessive $14 trillion spent for the Pentagon in the name of GWOT, almost half of which went to US defense contractors. Such tremendous funding could have been spent for better use on social welfare, cheaper health care, infrastructure, job retraining, home ownership, educational advancement, scholarships for excessively expensive schooling, free day care, etc.

Initiated by the Republican Bush Jr. administration and most prominently Vice President Dick Cheney after the September 11, 2001 attacks, GWOT has proved to be a perfect failure once the Taliban came back to power in Afghanistan 20 years later, and Al Qaeda, plus the so-called Islamic State, among other groups, are still operating.

The outrageous costs of these neo-conservative / neo-liberal military interventions have made the US government look like it was more concerned with the task of “democratizing” the world by force and violence―as if that quixotic goal were even possible―than caring for, and serving the American people and democracy at home.

Both Republicans and Democrats are responsible for these GWOT “forever wars.” And both Democrats and Republicans are responsible for provoking Moscow into its horrific war with Ukraine―given Republican Bob Dole’s efforts to push the Democrat Bill Clinton to enlarge NATO as soon as possible to Central Europe and then to the Baltic States and Ukraine when Dole was running for president against Clinton in 1996.

Trump has claimed he can end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. Very dubious. Contrary to Trump’s boasting, there is no reason why the Democrats cannot significantly alter US foreign and domestic policy after a thorough policy review in 2025. Harris does not necessarily have to follow in the footsteps of Biden. Harris and her national security council can possibly alter US policies toward Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea. It is not impossible for Harris to engage in a new policy intended to achieve peace between Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Iran, North and South Korea, China and Taiwan, among other conflicts.

As president, Trump never took any major steps toward preventing a Russia-Ukraine conflict after Putin annexed Crimea in the fear that NATO might deploy Missile Defense systems and take Russia’s bases at Sevastopol. For their part, the Democrats had at least tried to “reset” relations with Moscow in 2008 and failed miserably. They could still try again. The chances of a major power war are very real, and whoever becomes president will have to engage in a very difficult diplomatic process to prevent the worst!

On the domestic side, the US government definitely needs serious, far-reaching reforms and needs to cut costs and excessive bureaucracy. Yet Trump’s domestic government cost-cutting project of “draining the swamp” (that he claims is not aligned with the Heritage Foundation “Project 2025”) is not the way to go...

Trump’s proposed governmental “reforms” will actually weaken Congress and augment the lobbying power of big corporations and of the military industrial complex, while likewise augmenting the power of a new “imperial presidency."

If Harris is elected, the Democrats and anti-Trump Repblicans must push for a new infusion of blood into the democratic process by reforming both the Supreme Court and Congress. If Trump wins, however, he will continue his efforts to control the Congress and the Supreme Court and to muffle legitimate domestic dissent that opposes his policies.

Given the scandal that has been impacting the Supreme Court (including threats of impeachment), the size of the Court could be enlarged as proposed by Democrats, but more importantly, there should be 12-year term limits for aging Supreme Court justices, not 18-years as advocated by some Democrats.

And instead of expanding presidential powers and weakening Congress as Trump hopes to do, Congress should limit the powers of the executive branch by implementing a single-term presidency of 6 years, much as Jimmy Carter had argued.

A single-term presidency would result in a new relationship between the Presidency, his party, and the Congress and open new possibilities. Democrats, Republicans and third parties would all benefit from this fundamental reform, as it would open the door to new candidates for president.

It would permit more choices for the next president, as it would be understood that the vice president is not the only person who could be president for the same party. Harris appeared to be the last-minute option, but only because she was the Vice President. There was no time to search for other candidates.

If the US Congress voted to change the presidential term from two possible 4-year terms to one 6-year term only, then the whole Trump cry baby charade would never have happened. Trump could not claim he lost! He would have only been permitted to serve one term!

And the proof that a one-term presidency is a better option than a two-term presidency is seen in the last-minute change from Biden to Harris. The Democrats can possibly beat Trump―precisely because Biden stepped down as he first said he might before he won the presidency. While Harris is not perfect, she is definitely less dangerous than Trump!

It is time for the whole country to wake up, Democrats, Republicans and Independents, alike. In the next four years, it is crucial that Congress and the American people push for a one-year term for the presidency and a 12-year term for Supreme Court justices, or else face the real possibility of a dictatorship in the not-so-distant future, whether it will be Trump or someone else following in his footsteps.

At the same time the Americans will need to press their leadership for peace as swords clash without end in sight over the Crimea and Holylands...

Praise for World War Trump

This is what the former editorialist for the International Herald Tribune, Jonathan Power, said about World War Trump: “Not even Zbigniew Brzezinski or Henry Kissinger have written such a book…. Every foreign affairs student, journalist, academic, and policymaker should make reading it a priority.”

May the reader judge...